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SUMMER, SAUNAS, AND SHIVERS

Lizzie

AUGUST 30, 2003

I WAS IN A PICKLE .

Torn between wanting summer 2003 to stretch on forever, while wishing the new school year would hurry up and arrive.

On the one hand, I didn’t want the summer to end because I was having the time of my life with Hugh. On the other, returning to school meant we would see each other almost every day.

I was drowning so deep in my feelings for this boy that I wanted to press the fast-forward button on my life and skip five years into the future.

We had a detailed plan carved out, one that consisted of us both attending Trinity, with Hugh studying medicine, while I worked on an undergrad in English Studies.

We would rent a small apartment on the outskirts of the city and survive on beans on toast until we established ourselves in our chosen careers.

Money would be tight for the first few years, with me taking on the role of primary breadwinner until my boyfriend attained residency and the real money started to roll in. From there, Hugh would take on the role of provider, while I concentrated on writing my first novel.

While I wasn’t privy to when Hugh would ask me to marry him, we both agreed to have the first of two children before thirty. Because we both wanted to be homeowners before we had a family, and with Hugh’s insistence on being married beforehand, I predicted the ring would arrive somewhere between my twenty-third and twenty-fifth birthday.

“Are you coming?” Hugh called out, and I quickly dragged myself from my daydream to see him lingering near the door of the sauna with a smirk on his face.

Hell yeah I was coming .

Climbing out of the swimming pool in record time, slip-sliding across the tiles in my rush to get to him.

Grinning, Hugh opened the door of the sauna and pulled me inside. The moment I stepped inside, the smell of eucalyptus filled my nose. “Oh God, this smells amazing.”

“You know what smells even more amazing?” He sank down on the wooden bench and pulled me onto his lap. “My girlfriend.”

My smile widened. “Is that so?”

“Mm-hmm.” Nodding, his lips brushed my neck. “I could eat you up.”

Hooking an arm around his neck, I squeezed my thighs together, feeling too much in this moment for him. “I wish you would.”

His lips still against my fluttering pulse. “Hmm?”

Blowing out a shaky breath, I repeated my words. “I wish you would.”

He adjusted me on his lap so that I was straddling him. “I want to.”

Excitement flooded me. “You do?”

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly, brown eyes locked on mine. “I do.”

“You can,” I breathed, shivering when I felt him harden beneath me. “Whenever you want.”

“I want to be everywhere, Liz,” he admitted in a pained groan. “Badly.”

“You want me badly?” I rocked my hips against him, enjoying the way his hands clamped on my hips and his nostrils flared. “You want to be inside me?”

“So fucking much,” he groaned, pulling me down on his lap, while he thrust upward.

“You’re hard.”

“I know.”

“I’m wet.”

“I know.”

“Have me.”

“Soon.”

“I can’t wait anymore.”

“We can still touch,” he whispered, trailing his fingers over my belly and thigh. “We can still taste.”

“Can I taste?”

He thickened beneath me. “Do you want to taste?”

I nodded. “Badly.”

“Fuck.”

I leaned in and kissed him.

“You’re going to ruin me, aren’t you?”

“You’re already ruined,” I teased. “I’m just going to make it worth your while.”

“I’m in.”

“I don’t want fingers,” I protested, reaching a hand between our bodies. “I want this.” Dipping my fingers under the waistband of his boxers, I gripped him . “In me.”

A sharp hiss escaped his lips, and his hips thrust into my touch of their own accord. “Don’t do that, baby. I’ll come.”

“That’s what I want.” Moving in a slow rhythm, I glided my hand up and down his shaft, reveling in the way he strained beneath me. “Give it up, Biggs.”

“You’re so fucking…good at that,” he bit out, cheeks flushed as his eyelids fluttered. “God, please don’t stop.”

“I won’t,” I promised, working doubly hard on getting him to the point of no return.